"A few days ago, I got a tip that Intel is supposedly in talks to buy Roku.

I haven't been able to confirm this; both Intel and Roku are simply saying they're not commenting. So at this point, we gotta treat it as just another Valley rumor, which coincides with another rumor I've heard about Roku working on getting yet another round of funding.

As I spent the holiday weekend trying to get in touch with sources that all clearly had better things to do, I thought about both about those scenarios - and realized that this may actually be a good time for Roku to sell."

I can't believe Intel which has shutdown its internet TV chip making business would now consider buying a company that uses a competitor's chips in their internet TV boxes. I think Roku and Boxee will have a short life if they don't get involved with a bigger company so I don't doubt Roku is trying to position itself to be an attractive acquisition.

No question: Roku has had a very good year. The company revamped its hardware line, added casual gaming as well as paid apps, and was able to transform Roku boxes from something you'd only find on Amazon.com to a product that's available at Best Buy, Target,Walmart and elsewhere. Roku predicted early on that it would end the year with a total of 3 million devices sold, and I'm fairly confident that we are soon gonna hear that it surpassed that number.

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According to this article Roku came up short of 3 million total with 2.5 million shipped.

We're told the price (it will be available both as a standalone and pack-in) should be in a similar range to current Roku players, which the company also announced it has shipped 2.5 million of to date. Check after the break for the press release and pics showing how it fits in an HDTV.